Ok, so the product saves you the trouble of finding your sprinkler head and doing something to anchor it (mine "walk" if I don't weight them down with a brick). But you're still stuck with running the hose to them and manually turning the water on, and remembering to turn it off. And right now, we're under water restrictions that only allow me to water Tues and Fridays between 6 o'clock and 8 o'clock. While I'm not completely finished, I'm so glad I've gotten enough of my irrigation system installed so far that I've been able to keep my lawn alive during this heat wave/water restrition period without having to babysit lawn sprinklers twice a week between 6 and 8 o'clock. Given the "work" involved in watering the lawn even with these time savers, that's still alot more work than maintainence of an irrigation system that's been properly installed. Now I will admit that the installation of an irrigation system as a DIY has taken my ALOT longer and a lot more work than I ever immagined... but then again, I'm an engineer and I'm installing a complex system (lawn irrigation with several drip irrigation circuits all laid out such that the system doesn't have to be winterized, just simply drained).

I would recommend you download the manual from Bosch's website. It has the answers to your questions and step by step instructions. All dishwashers with softeners need to be programmed with your water hardness to work properly. If you're on a well, you'll need to use the test strip included with the dishwasher. If not, you can also call your water company to figure out the hardness in grains per gallon and program the dishwasher accordingly.

Thanks for the pictures, Vell. All my 40 plants have been on wick systems from the beginning & I observed leaves on some of mine under artificial light 10 hours a day curling under & stunted looking. I too thought 1st of mites from what I'd read. I started rotating them in 4 different locations in my house that all receive different light: east morning bright light, north all day even light, southwest afternoon filtered sunlight & under my Sunblaster light 10 hours a day. The new leaves responded positively just like yours & it even stimulated plants to bud & bloom. The moral is as growers to try changing things when they don't look happy. Sometimes they just need a change of scenery just like we do. Hope this helps someone.

Yes, the microbelift is certainly useful for the store. I have no idea about for your pond. But again, just for pH buffering, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is the perfect thing; can't hurt; cheap. If microbelift was supposed to be mainly for pH buffering, it is probably mainly just sodium bicarbonate anyway. My guess is that plants don't grow as early up north. That might lead to more algae. My lily pads get black spots as they age. I pull pads out as they deteriorate. We can't be sure about the pH, but it is likely that it really is around pH 9